October 8, 2012
Cronyism in the Oil and Gas Business
PKR secretary general Dato’ Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said oil producing states would be able to operate their respective oil operation through state government-linked companies should Pakatan Rakyat come to power.
Saifuddin said this was different than the current practice.“That is because the companies operating on oil fields are owned by UMNO leaders’ family. For example, two oil fields in Kelantan are owned by Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s children,” he said at a ceramah with PAS Deputy President Mohamad Sabu in Kota Bharu yesterday.
The new deal, according to Saifuddin, forms part of PR’s pledge if it wins the next general election.In Kelantan, the Machang member of parliament said there were 23 oil fields yet to be explored.
“Every oil field is estimated to be worth RM3 billion. So to avoid those oil fields being controlled by UMNO leaders’ family, the government in Putrajaya must be changed,” he added.
In its alternative budget, PR pledged to increase royalty payment to 20 per
cent for petroleum-producing states, from the present five percent.
UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin had spoken out against the idea, saying it would affect the government’s tax revenue and profits for national oil company Petronas.
Earlier this week, the Kelantan state government, locked in a legal battle over unpaid oil royalties, was allowed by the Federal Court to pose questions of law surrounding its suit against Petronas.
-Harakahdaily
Alamak, Mahathir, the Petronas Advisor, again. Petron, Sapura-Kenchana, and so on. Isn’t this blatant conflict of interest. No wonder, he is scared if Pakatan takes over Putrajaya. Poochee for him and his family. Najib is powerless to deal with him.
Dear anakkedah, Najib was chosen by Mahadek. Of course he is powerless to deal with Mahadek.
Once the offshore oilfields in Kelantan are taken over Al Kutty and his sons will have to sell budu and keropok lekor at the Kota Bahru market to make ends meet. Hope it comes to that.
I congratulate Pakatan Rakyat for proposing the setting up of state GLCs in the O & G sector should they take over. As a Sarawakian, I find the idea is actually long overdue. Sarawakians have been exposed to the O & G industry since the early 1900s (well over one hundred years ago) when the first oil fields and refinery started in Miri, and later in Bintulu. Since then, thousands of Sarawakians have been involved in the sector at all levels and in every activity related to the industry. Today, there are also hundreds of Sarawakians all over the globe working for international firms, some even reaching the top management levels. The lack of competent, capable and qualified talent would be the least of problems if the state were to start such a set up. As an observation, despite all the involvement of the state in the sector, I do not recall any Sarawakian being appointed to the Board of Directors of Petronas since its establishment. I suppose that is clear testimony to how Sarawakians have been treated as stepchildren by the government in favour of retired civil servants and political appointees.
For Khairy Jamaluddin, any successful O & G GLCs run by the state will still be paying 25% in corporate tax to the government, and this could be in the billions, rather than to Petronas where it will end up in the pockets of a few select cronies.
No wonder Mokhzani is worth , how many billion? and how old is he? No wonder he doesnt want Anwar to come in as PM. Change the government.
Idris Jala, as a Kelabit from Sarawak, wouldn’t you be interested to be an advisor of yet to be formed Sarawak O & G GLC? Not only your experience with Shell will come in handy but your spin (sorry stint) with Pemandu will be invaluable.
Before the spigot dries up for the old goat and family, expect a slew of provocations on the demise of Malays, the twin threats on the monarchy and Islam. Nothing is sacred to the old goat in pursuit for protection of his money and legacy.
When we change government this is the political philosophy we must follow;
“Political philosophy
The best known Arabic source for al-Farabi’s political philosophy is al-Madina al-fadila. While this work undoubtedly embraces Platonic themes, it is in no way an Arabic clone of Plato’s Republic. This becomes very clear right at the beginning of al-Farabi’s work, with its description of the First Cause (Chapters 1-2) and the emanation of ‘the Second’ from ‘The First’ (Chapter 3). Later in the work, however, al-Farabi lays down in Platonic fashion the qualities necessary for the ruler: he should be predisposed to rule by virtue of an innate disposition and exhibit the right attitude for such rule. He will have perfected himself and be a good orator, and his soul will be, as it were, united to the active intellect (see §3). He will have a strong physique, a good understanding and memory, love learning and truth and be above the materialism of this world. Other qualities are enumerated by al-Farabi as well, and it is clear that here his ideal ruler is akin to Plato’s classical philosopher-king (see Plato §14).
Al-Farabi has a number of political divisions for his world. He identifies, for example, three types of society which are perfect and grades these according to size. His ideal virtuous city, which gives its name to the whole volume, is that which wholeheartedly embraces the pursuit of goodness and happiness and where the virtues will clearly abound. This virtuous city is compared in its function to the limbs of a perfectly healthy body. By stark contrast, al-Farabi identifies four different types of corrupt city: these are the ignorant city (al-madina al-jahiliyya), the dissolute city (al-madina al-fasiqa), the turncoat city (al-madina al-mubaddala) and the straying city (al-madina al-dalla). The souls of many of the inhabitants of such cities face ultimate extinction, while those who have been the cause of their fall face eternal torment. In itemizing four corrupt societies, al-Farabi was surely aware of Plato’s own fourfold division of imperfect societies in the Republic into timarchy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. The resemblance, however, is more one of structure (four divisions) rather than of content.
At the heart of al-Farabi’s political philosophy is the concept of happiness (sa’ada). The virtuous society (al-ijtima’ al-fadil) is defined as that in which people cooperate to gain happiness. The virtuous city (al-madina al-fadila) is one where there is cooperation in achieving happiness. The virtuous world (al-ma’mura al-fadila) will only occur when all its constituent nations collaborate to achieve happiness.
Walzer reminds us that both Plato and Aristotle held that supreme happiness was only to be gained by those who philosophized in the right manner. Al-Farabi followed the Greek paradigm and the highest rank of happiness was allocated to his ideal sovereign whose soul was ‘united as it were with the Active Intellect’. But Walzer goes on to stress that al-Farabi ‘does not confine his interest to the felicity of the first ruler: he is equally concerned with the felicity of all the five classes which make up the perfect state’ (Walzer, in introduction to al-Madina al-fadila (1985: 409-10)). Farabian political philosophy, then, sits astride the saddle of Greek eudaimonia, and a soteriological dimension may easily be deduced from this emphasis on happiness.
For if salvation in some form is reserved for the inhabitants of the virtuous city, and if the essence of that city is happiness, then it is no exaggeration to say that salvation is the reward of those who cooperate in the achievement of human happiness. Eudaimonia/sa’ada becomes a soteriological raft or steed.”
source: http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H021.htm
Shame on us for doubting mokhzani’s business savvy. Have u all shaken his hand? Its grip would make squidworth proud.
handshake strength indicates business acumen and savvy? Something new here. Needs to practice squeezing the Shaolin Steel Balls, so I can squeeze more moolah from Malaysia
Can somebody explain why all training programs for Petronas cannot be conducted directly with Petronas’ human capital managers? Why mus training programs be presented through a company called Pertama or something like that? If I have very good programs which will definitely benefit the oil giants’ executives in carrying out their work effectively, why must I deal with a third party? Why can’t Petronas managers deal with me, incompetent? Or did your bosses hired a toll collector, that my RM6,000 4-day intensive programe become RM15,000 per pax?
Same thing with many other giant GLCs. All training program providers must be registered with them, fair enough, but how could a Pendatang Sepet like me with my Australian partners qualify as Bumiputra? Easy they say, form a local company with 50% Bumiputra partner…
habis cerita, gulung tikar,
balik kampung, tanam jagung…
cari makan dinegri orang lebih adil
dari cari makan dinegara sendiri…
belajar sampai sijil sarjana
berpengalaman 28 tahun dengan MNCs
tetapi GLCs dinegri sendiri langsung tak layan
tapi bisa didukung dan disanjung dinegara jiran….
Khairy Jamaluddin, you know nuts about economics nor finance nor accounting. You are an embarassment with that statement of yours supporting NFC / Sharizat i.e. “the RM250 million was an escrow account which is not an escrow account” It was hilarious and quite stupid really.
And now you come and tell us government tax revenues will be affected if the O&G business are managed by state-owned GLCs? Hey 23% tax on Petronas income is same as 23% tax on income of all state-owned GLCs together… like Bill Clinton said in his recent speech nominating Barack Obama for a second term, “its arithmetics, stupid!”
In this instance, all revenues are owned and spent by the respective states where the oil and gas fields are located, irrespective of whether they are governed by the federal government of the day or by the opposition in these states. Furthermore, federal government will not have such a clout over states like Sarawak, Sabah, Trengganu and Kelantan and there is no need to do financial acrobatics like 1MDB etc…
Petronas can focus on foreign oil trading, investments and running the Kedai Mesra… leave the local downstream biz to the individual state’s GLCs…
Don’t know about his hand but his dong is always flacid – says Rose.
If someone cares to open all the books. All trails will led to Putrajaya. Malaysia no longer belongs to Malaysians but UMNO.
Didn’t realize you can own an oil field in Malaysia. I always thought you own the land but mineral rights belong to the state.
If the PR pledges to allow the O&G producing states to set up their own state O&G GLCs and manage their own O&G resources, why talk about the need of increasing the royalties from 5% to 20%? Is this a case of trying to mislead the public? Will these O&G rich states be willing to share their revenues for national development & assistance to other states?